Inhalers are commonly used to deliver a wide range of medicaments to the bronchial passages, lungs and bloodstream of the user. Typical inhalers hold a container of pressurized medicament and propellant that is actuatable, generally by compression, to deliver a dose of medicament through a mouthpiece to the patient.
It is generally desirable for the dose of medication to be dispensed at the same time that the patient inhales air to permit the majority of medication to enter the lung rather than the mouth or esophagus. A number of inhalers have been developed that use breath actuated devices to automatically initiate the discharge of the medicament from the container when the patient inhales. Many of these devices, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,204 to Smith et al., use latching mechanisms that require a considerable amount of air pressure to release the medicament. These higher release pressures lead to difficulty of use, and discharge at non-optimal points in the patient's breath cycle.
The devices described in WO 2005/007226 and WO 2007/066140 are actuated with lower release pressures and are therefore more readily used by patients. However, the arrangements of these devices is such as to render assembly of the devices difficult and/or slow, particularly in relation to automated mass production.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a breath-actuated inhaler device which is comparatively simple and/or quick to assemble.